mothballed ships - Portsmouth

Lantern Swinger

1. apart from Intrepid & Fearless there are three other ships up the trot, two x T42 and one other can anyone name them.

2. HMS Vernon / Gunwharf Quays: Someone has spent a lot of pennies here and very pretty it all looks, wouldn't fancy paying Â£300,000 for a flat there though. I noticed two buildings, Vernon and Vulcan Building, can anyone recall what there use was during Vernon Days. The catering Office and stores would have been behind Vernon building if I remember rightly, but, am not sure.

Cheers

Apologies if this thread is in wrong forum please change as necessary.

War Hero

Lantern Swinger

s'Funny... I was in Pompey too last week. Noticed only two Type42s up there, but must have missed another FF or DD. Did notice that there were no less than four T42s and at least one T23 alongside though - a jetty each. Seems to run against a comment on another thread that suggests most of our ships are at sea most the time.

If Glasgow and Birmingham are mothballed, wouldn't Cardiff, Exeter and a couple of other T42s be over there soon?

I remember going to Navy Days in what may have been about 1957 and frigates and Destroyers were four abreast on each jetty, plus a couple of Cruisers, 3 Carriers, lots of other odds and sods AND there was a line of about 20 mothballed ships opposite, including the Sheffield - they called the whole lot HMS Bellerophon I think. Oh yes, and that 'bent' carrier that was there for years - Leviathan was it?

War Hero

Marlborough is also in Pompey. So is RFA Sir Tristram btw. (Well they were there when I was on Grafton a couple of weeks ago)

Google Earth's images are out of date so I would think military secrecy isn't an issue, but having said that, try looking at Faslane with it! The picture blanks out at preceisly where the jetties start.

Thanks, I wondered what the old one was (Rame Head) must have been there a while. The old scrap yard at Tipner on the way in to Pompey seems empty now, I only saw a Tank and what looks like some heavy landing transporters.

I saw the 3 Hunts and 1 Sandown in 1 Basin behind Victory, wondered what was happening with them, had some good afternoons on the Cattistock and Cottesmore when I worked in Small Ships. :wink:

Lantern Swinger

Google Earth's images are out of date so I would think military secrecy isn't an issue, but having said that, try looking at Faslane with it! The picture blanks out at preceisly where the jetties start.

War Hero

The above links to a guy who uses google earth/multimap etc in order to map so called "secret bases". He makes some interesting suggestions regarding the governmental view of these services. Don't worry,tinfoil hat not required!

Lantern Swinger

Google Earth's images are out of date so I would think military secrecy isn't an issue, but having said that, try looking at Faslane with it! The picture blanks out at preceisly where the jetties start.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but it seems to be simple fluke that the jettys at Faslane are not shown due to the fact that High res phots are not available for the whole country. All other naval bases are shown in full as well as many other more 'secret' establishments, such as Adlermaston for example.

War Hero

Google Earth's images are out of date so I would think military secrecy isn't an issue, but having said that, try looking at Faslane with it! The picture blanks out at preceisly where the jetties start.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but it seems to be simple fluke that the jettys at Faslane are not shown due to the fact that High res phots are not available for the whole country. All other naval bases are shown in full as well as many other more 'secret' establishments, such as Adlermaston for example.

Lantern Swinger

I just clicked on Google Community and now have loads of information, Military establishments and landmarks, Gatso cameras, mobile phone masts, details of VC holders, (not sure if this is where they lived or statues or memorials), a glider over high wycombe and the Black rectangle as detailed above with "Hidden area-what is it?" as a label

Lantern Swinger

Google Earth's images are out of date so I would think military secrecy isn't an issue, but having said that, try looking at Faslane with it! The picture blanks out at preceisly where the jetties start.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but it seems to be simple fluke that the jettys at Faslane are not shown due to the fact that High res phots are not available for the whole country. All other naval bases are shown in full as well as many other more 'secret' establishments, such as Adlermaston for example.

The rest of the 42s are in differing stages of readiness. It's likely the Batch Two As and Bs will be reduced once the first 45s come on line.

If you check out recent picures of the Hercules and Santissima Trinidad, Argentina's Type 42s, you'll see the difference between T42s that haven't been thrashed to dust and ours which look ******* awful.

MIA

There's still a Ton class there - semi-dismantled on the west side, and the old HMS STALKER (a tank transporter?) is rusting away quietly. Apparently the council are trying to close it down as it is an eyesore.

I saw the 3 Hunts and 1 Sandown in 1 Basin behind Victory, wondered what was happening with them, had some good afternoons on the Cattistock and Cottesmore when I worked in Small Ships. :wink:

The Hunts are the former Northern Ireland patrol vessels (COTTESMORE, DULVERTON and BRECON), decommissioned late last year as part of the "Peace (ahem) Process". There are a lot of Sandowns around the base, I lose touch which ones are where, but apparently they are being kept in mothballs for "attrition losses". Such as ...